


Part 3: the way of a ship in the middle of the sea

by batyatoon



Series: Three Things and Four [3]
Category: Tanakh, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 19:26:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyatoon/pseuds/batyatoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are three things which are too wonderful for me,<br/>And four which I do not understand:</p><p>The way of an eagle in the sky,<br/>The way of a serpent upon a rock,<br/>The way of a ship in the middle of the sea,<br/>And the way of a man with a maid.</p><p>-Proverbs, 30:18-19</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part 3: the way of a ship in the middle of the sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_ragnarok](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ragnarok/gifts).



Nakuti's egg was to hatch within the month, Queen Maqueda told him. And swiftly he came to understand two things: that she wished him to be present at the hatching, and that this was an honor of the highest degree.

A thing he had slightly more trouble understanding -- or perhaps, more trouble accepting -- was her insistence that the soon-to-be-hatchling was her cousin Ashmedai, reborn in this form after his untimely death. When he realized that she meant it quite literally, he couldn't stop his mind from leaping up in wild, delighted surmise: could it be true? He had long believed that a soul could return and be reborn after death, to atone for or learn from its past errors ... but that it could be reborn as a beast? And yet why not, in a thinking beast, with the same free will as a man?

"For if God gave such excellent understanding to creatures so little like ourselves," he said to Nakuti, as the three of them sat together in the courtyard late one night, "why should we not think of you as made in God's image, as we are? We speak of God's hands, but do we not also speak of God's wings, held over us as a shelter or bearing us up from trouble?"

Wind stirred the lamp-flames as Nakuti lifted and settled her own wings more comfortably. "How do you speak of your God as having hands _or_ wings, if as you say he has no body?"

"No," Maqueda said, resting her chin on one hand, "I see how it is."

"Do you?"

"Oh yes. If something can't be described as it is, then it can only be described as what it's like." She smiled at him, warm and knowing. "No wonder you do so well at riddles."

\-----

Two nights after that Maqueda judged the time was right, and asked Shelomo if he would like to go flying with her.

Only two of his men mastered their fear -- of Nakuti, or of the flight itself -- and joined them, along with three of her women; they took bread and wine, and roast fowl and salted olives and pressed figs, and flew out over the wild hills around the city. She watched his face as they soared, lit with wonder and eager delight, and made her decision.

"I would ask a boon," she said, as they sat at their meal under a wild apple tree, "and offer one."

"Say on," he invited.

"When I return home," she said, "I would leave my cousin Ashmedai here with such attendants and servants as befit his rank, to serve as my emissary."

"And for the other boon?"

"For the other ..." She smiled. "I would take a child of yours back home with me, when I go."

She saw his eyes widen with shock, and brighten with unmistakeable pleasure at the thought -- and then half-close with caution.

"He could be raised to worship your God," she murmured before he could answer, "and might someday return to the land of his fathers. Or he might stay, to found a people of his own."

She could see how he wanted to agree, and what it cost him to hesitate, to think it through ... and found herself admiring him more than ever.

"We would need to discuss terms," he said, "before I could assent to either. But I will say ... it pleases me greatly that you would ask what you ask, and offer what you offer."

And he did not say, as she had not, which was the boon she offered and which she asked of him.

\-----

_Night has fallen, and the storm is still raging outside; most of the household is asleep, or about to be. She sits by the propped-open door of the guest room, watching by candlelight as he feeds scraps of meat to the tiny bird on his wrist; she knows her father suspects she's here instead of in her own room, and silently blesses him for pretending not to._

_"Do you think they were happy?" she asks, almost without meaning to. "Solomon and Balqis. Do you think they were happy together, while it lasted? Knowing it had to end?"_

_He looks up from the plate of scraps, his hand going still. The eaglet gives an affronted squawk and lunges for the dangling treat, digging still-soft talons into the padding on his wrist, and he hastily returns to his task._

_"Happy?" He shrugs, as though it's a word that's never meant much to him; his voice is light and careless, or tries to be. "I suppose they might have been. If they were wise enough not to think of the ending."_

_"Perhaps." Quiet. "Or to count the time they had worth the loss."_

_He looks up at her again. "And would you count it thus, in their place?"_

_Sara meets his gaze steadily, unsmiling. "I might."_

_Tharkay doesn't smile either, but something lightens his face; some invisible tension eases. "Well," he says softly. "Well, then."_

_And he bends his head to his task once more._

  
"Sara Maden"  


**Author's Note:**

> "Sara Maden": Image of Ayelet Zurer found on [Film Score Monthly](http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=92007&forumID=1&archive=0) and edited by author using ArcSoft PhotoStudio.
> 
> \-----
> 
> Final notes:  
> 
> 
> I drew a great deal of inspiration (including various character names) from the Wikipedia entries on the [Queen of Sheba](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Sheba) and the [Kebra Nagast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebra_Negast), and from a translation of the latter (available in its entirety [here](http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/)).  
>  The name Ashmedai is from midrash, where he is said to be a demon summoned by King Solomon. Other midrashic stories about King Solomon include his mastery over the king of the birds, and his owning a flying carpet that would fly him anywhere he wished to travel ... probably just a coincidence.
> 
> Chag Sameach!


End file.
